Also validating’s Kiip position as a mobile rewards partner are the 100 campaigns it ran last year for 75 brands including Pepsi, American Express, Best Buy and Mondelez. The startup had started out as an in-game ad platform, high-fiving mobile gamers with virtual goods when they completed a level or beat a game, but has grown into rewards platform that brands can use to deliver offers tied to these “own-able moments” — moments that can deepen the relationship between brands and consumers, Wong claims. Last year Kiip saw 1 billion of these moments—and 280 million in the last 30 days—and served 200 million rewards. Wong wouldn’t say how many of those rewards were redeemed “because that way people will know our revenues” but said that redemption rates range from 10 to 25 percent per reward.

Kiip’s rewards platform has been largely mobile-centric—spanning 700 apps, 70 percent of them games, according to Wong—but the company has begun making headway into search and social. Discussing the IPG investment during last week’s International CES, it seemed a logical next step for Kiip could be the connected car. “Let’s just say it would be a mistake for us not to think about other areas where rewards could be applied to,” Wong said.

“Our eventual goal as a company is to own every single achievement moment on the planet, whether it be you hit your energy savings goals with your Nest thermostat or you were able to get good mileage with your hybrid [car],” he said.

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Did the leading media technology companies of today truly set out to become disruptive companies? Were they focused on media at their inception? Consider Google. It was founded to build a better search platform. Or Facebook, providing a place for college kids to exchange photos with their friends. Twitter was founded as a side project focused on personal updates. None of these companies originally set out to change the world or generate billions of dollars in advertising revenue. Rather, they were great technology companies that over time have become huge advertising and digital platforms.

These companies are clearly anomalies within the myriad of start-up companies that are launching across the globe. Tracking these evolving companies and determining if and how they can become relevant to consumers and to Fortune 500 brands is a daunting task. In addition to tracking the exploding technology development, brands need to be interested in and willing to engage start-up companies that might prove important to their future business.